Thursday, September 22, 2016

The Arkansas Supreme Court today rejected a legal challenge to the sufficiency of the ballot title for an initiated act to legalize medical marijuana, dispensed by non-profit facilities.

The lawsuit, by Arkansans Against Legal Marijuana, a coalition including the Farm Bureau and the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, cited a number of potential developments from the law not mentioned in the title. On one of the points, the court observed:

.. it is not necessary that a ballot title include every possible consequence or impact of a proposed measure. Further, we have noted above that it is sufficient for the ballot title to be complete enough to convey an intelligible idea of the scope and import of the proposed law.

the ballot title is an impartial summary of the proposed measure that will give voters a fair understanding of the issues presented and of the scope and significance of the proposed changes in the law.

Separately, a special master has heard testimony this week about a challenge to sufficiency of signatures on petitions to put the act on the ballot. Attacking the signatures has included a witness for a for-profit signature canvassing company, Heidi Gay of National Ballot Access, whose company was hired to gather signatures for a competing constitutional amendment to allow medical marijuana sales at for-profit dispensaries. That amendment also faces a legal challenge from Arkansans Against Legal Marijuana. That company also was hired to gather signatures for an amendment to allow three additional casinos in Arkansas.

The special master is due to issue proposed findings on signatures Friday. Then the parties will submit briefs on them.

Should the initiated act survive, it's sure some of the legal arguments rejected will be part of the campaign against it: Such as the ability to see marijuana in food or drink form and the prhobition against discrimination against people who use marijuana for medicine. Other arguments included a failure to mention a lack of testing for the limited exception that allows home-grown marijuana and the possibility that state regulators could choose to ignore a cap on dispensaries of one for every 20 pharmacies.

Speaking of...

Most of the appointments seem uncontroversial, but one name stood out: Travis Story, a Fayetteville attorney best known as a warrior for conservative social causes. He's one of Speaker Gillam's picks. /more/

Last month, the Arkansas Bar Association circulated the final draft of a proposed constitutional amendment to chose members of the Arkansas Supreme Court by appointment rather than election. Now, it's hosting public forums to discuss the proposal. /more/

The AP has obtained a draft of partial state Health Department rules that will govern medical marijuana in Arkansas. /more/

A statewide coalition of organizations working for criminal justice reform is asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to improve the pre-trial detention and release process in the state, which it says unjustly penalizes individuals for being poor or mentally ill. /more/

Arkansas is a strange place, CNN's newswire discovered. Soon, though people in half of Arkansas's counties can't legally buy a six-pack of beer, those with qualifying medical conditions will be able to legally use marijuana throughout the state. CNN talked to Navy veteran Blake Ruckle, of Fayetteville, who said he struggled with alcoholism and his PTSD made him contemplate suicide. Marijuana was the only thing that helped. Also, the Family Council was available for the retrograde perspective. /more/

Lawyers in a nursing home class action have not given up their effort to force Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood not to participate in the case. /more/

The right-wing so-called religious group, the Family Council, has more aims in the legislative session than limiting women's medical autonomy, as mentioned yesterday. It's also going to do all it can to defy the will of voters and limit availability of medical marijuana. /more/

The Arkansas Supreme Court today rejected most of a union's argument that it should not be prohibited from demonstrating against Walmart at its stores and nearby shopping areas. But it said an order against all "non-shopping activity" was overly broad. /more/

A couple of Arkansas Republican legislators rise to the defense of the Duggars. It's a family matter, they say. We beg to differ.

John Walker, the 79-year-old civil rights lawyer, and his associate, Omavi Shukur, 29, a young lawyer devoted to criminal justice reform, talked to press this afternoon about their arrests Monday by Little Rock police for supposedly obstructing governmental operations in observing and attempting to film a routine police traffic stop. It was a tutorial on sharp views of race, class and governance in Little Rock.

The U.S. Coast Guard has confirmed news that began circulating earlier today: A pipeline carrying natural gas across the Arkansas River ruptured in Little Rock yesterday or over the weekend.

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Next week a series of meetings on the use of technology to tackle global problems will be held in Little Rock by Club de Madrid — a coalition of more than 100 former democratic former presidents and prime ministers from around the world — and the P80 Group, a coalition of large public pension and sovereign wealth funds founded by Prince Charles to combat climate change. The conference will discuss deploying existing technologies to increase access to food, water, energy, clean environment, and medical care.

Plus, recipes from the Times staff.

Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) was on "Capitol View" on KARK, Channel 4, this morning, and among other things that will likely inspire you to yell at your computer screen, he said he expects someone in the legislature to file a bill to do ... something about changing the name of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.

So fed up was young Edgar Welch of Salisbury, N.C., that Hillary Clinton was getting away with running a child-sex ring that he grabbed a couple of guns last Sunday, drove 360 miles to the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C., where Clinton was supposed to be holding the kids as sex slaves, and fired his AR-15 into the floor to clear the joint of pizza cravers and conduct his own investigation of the pedophilia syndicate of the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state.

There is almost nothing real about "reality TV." All but the dullest viewers understand that the dramatic twists and turns on shows like "The Bachelor" or "Celebrity Apprentice" are scripted in advance. More or less like professional wrestling, Donald Trump's previous claim to fame.

Longtime KARK anchor Beth Ward died last night from complications of heart surgery, according to a report from THV11.

Rep. Kim Hendren this week filed a bill to prohibits the use of cell phones, pagers, beepers, digital media players, digital cameras, digital game consoles, and digital video or audio recorders for public students during the school day.